National Refractories & Minerals Corporation (NRMC) is an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) company created in 1985 from Kaiser Refractories. National's roots date back to 1929 under the name of Mexico Refractories.\r\n\r\nNational Refractories is a full line producer of refractory products including clay/alumina and basic brick; conventional castables; self-flow and vibratable low cement, ultra-low cement, and no cement castables; gunning mixes; shotcrete mixes; insulating casting, shotcreting, and gunning products; precast shapes; plastics; ram mixes; mortars; furnace fettling grains; and patching mixes. A division called National Affiliated Technologies produces very high purity fused silica shapes that are extremely resistant to thermal shock at elevated temperatures. Chicago/Wellsville Fire Brick Companies have produced a wide range of high quality clay/alumina refractory products for most applications. The basic and clay/alumina manufacturing plants of NRMC as well as the Chicago Fire Brick Company plant are ISO 9002 certified stressing National's commitment to produce the highest quality products in the refractories industry.\r\n\r\nWhile National Refractories began by servicing the steel industry, today the company has personnel experienced in servicing many other industries including cement, lime, glass, coke, pulp & paper, chemicals and petrochemicals, iron ore production, calcining, incineration, carbon black production, ferrous and non-ferrous foundries, aluminum, copper, nickel, zinc, lead, and other non-ferrous metals.